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Report of the Coimmittee of Nine 

TO THE 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
Washington, December 29, 1915* 



To the Members of the American Hisiorial Associafion : 

At the annual meeting held in Chicago, December 30. 1914,. 
the Executive Council of the Association recommended that 
''A Committee of Nine be appointed to consider the Constitution, 
organization and procedure of the Association, with instructions 
to report at the annual meeting of 1915 ;" and also recommended 
that this Committee, "in event of its appointment, be instructed 
to consider the relationship between the Association and the 
American Historical Review". Mr. Dimbar Rowland moved as 
a substitute for the Council's recommendation a series of reso- 
lutions, the last of which provided that a committee, charged with 
the duty of considering the affairs of the Association and the 
Review, be "instructed to send a printed copy of its report to 
all members of the Association not later than December 1st, 
1915." The resolutions thus offered as a substitute for the 
resolution proposed by the Council were rejected. The recom- 
mendations made by the Council were then adopted by the 
Association in the following words : 

"Resolved: That a Committee of Nine be appointed to 
consider the Constitution, organization, and procedure of 
the Association and the relationship between tlie Association 
and the American Historical Review, and that tlie Com- 
mittee be instructed to present a report at the annual 
meeting of 1915." 

Your Committee, thus specifically instructed to report at the 
anrual meeting of 1915, laid plans to do so. We were, therefore, 
not prepared to comply with the unexpected request which the 
Executive Council made late in November that we publish our 

*The action taken by the Association will be found on page 12. 



El 72 



report by the middle of the present month. Moreover, in view 
of the action of the Association, we doubted the propriety of 
doing more tlian adhering strictly to the instructions given us 
to report "at the annual meeting of 1915." 

Of the members elected to compose this committee, one, Mr. 
James Ford Rhodes, has declined, to the great regret of the 
remaining eight, who, acting upon your authorization "to fill 
such vacancies as may arise in their number" chose Mr. Charles 
H. Hull as a substitute. 

The Committee, after organization, began its work by corres- 
pondence early in the spring. It Avas necessary for the members 
to acquaint themselves with some of the problems of the Asso- 
ciation and with what appeared to be the inclinations and desires 
of its members. By October, the Committee was prepared for 
a meeting in which there should be an attempt to come to an 
understanding on the more important questions. On October 
9th and 10th, meetings were held in New York, attended by 
ail the members except Mr. E. D. Adams, who found it im- 
practicable to come from California for the purpose. Meetings 
in Washington during the past few days have been attended by 
all the members except Mr. W. T. Root and the Chairman who 
was confined to his home by illness. 

The Committee now recommends for your consideration certain 
changes in the Constitution, organization, and procedure of the 
Association, and certain plans for settling the relationship be- 
tween the Association and the American Historical Review, 
which, it hopes, will prove acceptable. The Committee will take 
up first the organization of the Association, then its procedure, 
then the Review, and finally the amendment of the Constitution. 



The organization comprises the officers, the Executive Council, 
the committees and commissions, and the Association itself. 
From the beginning, the officers and Council have had almost 
complete responsibility for conducting the affairs of the Associa- 
tion. We do not recommend that this practice be changed. 
On the contrary it is our opinion that the business of the 
Association, the custody of its property, and the care of its 
general interests, should be left with the officers and Council. 

2 



We are, however, of the opinion that the members of the Council 
should always be the choice, and most of them the recent choice, 
of the Association ; that the Association should explicitly reserve 
to itself full power of ultimate control over its affairs; and 
that it should be regularly in possession of all information 
needful to render its control effective. In our judgment the 
changes which we recommend in the Constitution are sufficient 
to insure these results in whatever measure the Association may 
from time to time desire. 

II. 

The procedure of the Association needs revision. Increasing 
debate and multifarious reports from committees and com- 
missions have over-crowded the brief hours left for the business 
session after a full pi-ogram of scientific papers. In consequence 
the adequate presentation by the Council of the scope and char- 
acter of new undertakings has become difficult, and an appear- 
ance, at least, of undue haste has occasionally accompanied the 
transaction of important business. For the remedy of this 
situation your Committee suggests: 

1st, that to the business meeting, including the election, there 
should be given a full half day, as in this year's program; 

2nd, that, as was done at Chicago, the minutes of the Council 
should be printed and distributed at or before the business 
meeting ; 

3rd, that reports from standing committees and commis- 
sions, showing in full the work accomplished, and in detail 
the expense incurred, should be made in writing to the Council 
at least two weeks before the annual meeting, should be held 
by the Secretary of the Association at his office, and at the place 
of the annual meeting during its continuance, subject to in- 
spection by any member, and should be read in the business 
meeting by title only unless the reading of the full report be 
called for by ten members present or directed by the Council ; 

4th, that, on the other hand, new activities and all matters in 
which there is reason to suppose that the Association takes a 
special interest, should be somewhat fully presented by the 
Council at the business meeting. The purpose of thase recom- 
meiulationsis, on the one hand, to give members an opportunity of 
keeping acquainted with the work of the Association, its Council 
and committees, and, on the other, to free the business meetings 
of unnecessary detail. 

3 



Since only a minority of the members of the Association ever 
attend the business meetings, we also suggest that it would be 
well if the abstracts of proceedings prepared by the Secretary 
and the Secretary of the Council for printing in the Annual 
Report, could contain more extended information than hitherto 
concerning the Association's activities aside from the historical 
papers read at the meetings. 

These general recommendations regarding the procedure of 
the Association w:e do not suggest placing in the Constitution 
or By-laws because those instruments should, in our opinion, be 
kept brief and general, and because the recommendations them- 
selves are of necessity tentative and may prove upon trial to 
need alteration. Meanwhile a mere vote of the Association 
approving them, if it shall in fact approve them, will be 
sufficient, we assume, to secure adequate attention from the 
officers and Council. 

Regarding the procedure in nominations and elections, how- 
ever, we think it desirable that definite rules should pertain, 
and have drafted By-laws which we recommend for that purpose. 

III. 

Into the history of the relationship between the Association 
and the American Historical Review we do not deem it neces- 
sary to go for the mere purpose of determining who, in the past, 
may have been legally the owners of that journal or in control 
of it. We do not understand that the Board of Editors, what- 
ever their rights may be, are now or have ever been opposed 
to the Review becoming the unquestioned property of the Asso- 
ciation in case the Association desires to own and conduct it. 
We are of opinion that the Association does desire to own and 
control the American Historical Review, and, on the whole, 
that it is desirable for the Association to do so. We believe, 
however, that the Association should clearly understand the 
responsibility which it will assume and the contingencies which 
it must face as unquestioned owner of the Review. 

Under the present arrangement for the publication of the 
American Historical Review the publisher receives: (a) the 
money paid by the Association for the copies mailed to its mem- 
bers, (b) the money paid on subscriptions by persons not members 
of the Association, and (c) the proceeds of casual sales and of 
advertising placed in the Review. The publisher pays to the 

4 



Board (a) the stipulated sum of $2400 per year for editorial 
expenses, and (b) two-thirds of the net profits of publication. 
This latter sum varies from year to year. In 1913-14 the Review 
received $254, in 1914-15 it was $330; for the past five years 
it has averaged about $400. Tlie total cash income of the Board 
may therefore be set at not more than $2800. Out of this sum the 
Board has paid for (a) office expenses, — postage, express, sta- 
tionery, and like items, (b) reviews, (c) contributed articles, 
(d) travelling expenses (transportation and puUmans) of the 
editors for meetings, (e) occasional payments for copyists or 
procuring documents, (f) payment of $120 a year for the 
preparation of some of the "historical news", and (g) the 
salary of an assistant to the editor, whose services, since January, 
191 f), have been contributed by the Carnegie Institution. 

For some years past the Board of Editors has turned over to 
the treasury of the Association the sum of $300 annually. This 
payment was gradually reducing the working balance of the 
Review funds; but since being relieved of the burden of the 
editorial assistant's salary the balance of the Review has been 
iiicreasing. 

Such being the present situation of the Review's finances, we 
turn to consider how changes which might occur would appar- 
ently affect the Association, under a contract for the publication 
of the Review like that now existing, which, in our opinion, is as 
favorable as the Association could expect to make. 

First, any considerable decrease in the Association's member- 
ship might necessitate increasing the payment made the pub- 
lislier for each copy sent the members, for example from the 
$1.f)0 per annum now paid to $2.00, which was paid before 
1906. That would diminish proportionately the share of the 
annual membership dues that remained available for general 
purposes of the Association. 

Second, the postal laws, as construed by some authorities, 
require the Association, if it owns the Review, to reduce the 
subsL-ription price now charged non-members ($4.00) to $3.20 per 
year. Such a change would diminish the publisher's gross income 
about $250, without diminisliing his expenses at all. Of the con- 
sequent decline of $250 in his net profits, the Association, as suc- 
cessor to the Board, would have to bear two-thirds, and in case the 
publisher proved unwilling to assume the remaining third, the 
Association might have to bear the whole. 



[The circulation through the mails of periodical publications issued by 
or under the auspices of benevolent or fraternal societies or orders, or 
trades-unions, or by strictly professional, literary, historical, or scientific 
societies, as second-class mail matter, shall be limited to copies mailed 
to such members as pay therefor, either as a jiart of their dues or 
assessments or otherwise, not less than fifty percentum of the regular 
subscription price. — The Postal Laws and Regulations pertaining to the 
Second Class of Mail Matter. Corrected to July 1, 1914, p. 6.] 

Third, a large addition to the editorial expense of the Review 
may at some time devolve npon the Association. At present an 
understanding between the Carnegie Institution and the Director 
of its Department of Historical Research permits the latter to 
devote a share of his time, and to direct a part of the time and 
labor of his assistants, to editorial and clerical work for the 
American Historical Review. If, for any reason, this arrange- 
ment should be terminated, the Association, as owner of the 
Review, would presumably find it necessary to pay salaries for 
the performance of editorial and clerical labors. No one can 
tell in advance just what the cost of such services would be, but 
the Committee ventures an opinion that the Review could not 
be kept at its present standard without the expenditure for this 
purpose of $2,000 a year or more. 

Combining these considerations we conclude that the Associa- 
tion, in taking entire ownership and control of the Review, must 
face the possibility that, in the worst case, the charge upon its 
treasury may be increased by something like $2,500 to $3,000 
yearly. We do not wish to be understood as predicting that the 
membership will decrease, or that the arrangement with the 
Carnegie Institution will be terminated. But in reporting upon 
the relationship between the Association and the American 
Historical Review, and recommending that the Association do 
own and control the Review, we should not be doing what we 
think our duty by leaving such possibilities unmentioned. On 
the other hand we would point out that if, under present con- 
ditions, the unexpected misfortunes to which we have alluded 
should happen, it is probable that the Association would have 
either to appropriate for the resultant deficit or else see the 
Review abandoned. So the financial situation may not be so 
much changed in fact as in form if our recommendation about 
the ownership and control of the American Historical Review 
shall be adopted by the Association. The only expensa which 
will necessarily be involved if the recommendation is carried 

6 



will be that resulting from the decrease, if any, required by law, 
in the subscription price to non-members of the Association. 

Your Committee recommends that the Association adopt the 
following resolutions : 

(1) Resolved, that it is the opinion of the Association that 
full ownership and control of the American Historical Review 
should be vested in the Association. 

(2) Resolved, that the President, the First Vice-President, 
Secretary of the Council, the Secretary of the Association, and 
the Treasurer be instructed to make such arrangements as may 
be necessary to that end, and be authorized to enter into such 
arrangements and agreements as may be requisite for the publi- 
cation and management of the Review, until final action is taken 
by the Council. 

We have not thought it desirable to provide in the Constitution 
or By-laws for the election of the editors of the Review, which 
under the general provisions of our present Constitution will 
rest where it long has, and where in our opinion it should rest, 
viz., in the Council. But in view of the reference made to us 
of the entire relation between the Association and the American 
Historical Review, we venture to express our opinion upon several 
points that concern the Review: 

First, the term of the Board of Editors should be long enough 
to familiarize them thoroughly with their duties. If the end 
in view be only to assure the publication by the Association of 
a journal of scholarship and authority, nothing will be gained 
by rapid rotation in office. 

Second, the Board should elect its own managing editor and 
should have entire control over the funds available for the 
support of the Review. 

Third, the Board should make a similar detailed annual report 
to that which we have suggested from other committees and 
commissions. 

Fourth, the Council should not elect as editor any one of its 
voting members, and no editor of the Review, while holding that 
position, should serve as officer of the Association or as a 
voting member of the Council. Whatever reason for such 
pluralities may have existed in the earlier days of the Associa- 
tion, there is none at present. The burden of conducting the 

7 



affairs of the Review is a heavy one, and a distribution of the 
tasks seems desirable. We assume that if the Association shall 
express its approval of these suggestions by the committee 
any editor who shall be chosen by the Association as an officer 
or as a member of the Council will resign from the Board. 

IV. 

A few words are necessary concerning proposed amendments 
to the Constitution. The only suggestion that the Committee 
has heard for the amendment of articles I, II, or III is that the 
membership dues be increased. We are of the opinion that no 
such change should be made at this time. 

In article IV we recommend amendments whereby former 
pi'csidents of the Association, while remaining members of the 
Council for life, shall have the privilege of voting in it for 
three years only. We do not anticipate that this change will 
deprive the Association of the valuable counsel of those who 
have become thoroughly familiar with its problems. We recom- 
•mcnd also that the number of elected members of the Executive. 
Council be increased from six to eight. Believing, as we do, that 
the Association should retain full power to hold its officers 
and Council responsible for their acts, we have not recommended 
any constitutional restrictions upon the annual election of 
'Council members. We wish, however, to place upon record our 
judgment that a practice of changing the elected Council members 
each year would render them ineffective for want of experience. 
W^e therefore suggest that successive nominating committees 
«nter upon some plan for so presenting names that, if their 
candidates are chosen, the elected members of the Council will 
normally hold their positions for not less than three nor more 
than four years. 

Under the arrangements here recommended it is plain that 
there would be eighteen voting members of the Council, of 
Avhom fifteen would be elected annually. If the four officers 
of the Association, whose duties naturally make it desirable that 
tliey should hold office for a number of years successively, be 
added to the three ex-presidents, there would still be eleven 
of the eighteen voting members who could be the immediate 
annual choice of the Association and, presumably, in immediate 
relationship with the membership of the Association. 

In article VI we recommend changes designed to make clear 

8 



the relation of the Council and the Association. In the suggested 
By-laws we have incorporated what we understand to be the 
present practice of the Association regarding elections and the 
expenses of the Council. 

We now place before the Association the following recom- 
mendations for amendment of the Constitution and for the enact- 
ment of By-laws, believing that the reasons for the chief altera- 
tions proposed have been adequately explained, and that the 
others will speak for themselves. 

The Constitution as it is at present reads as follows : 

(I). 

The name of this society shall be the American Historical 
Association. 

(II). 
Its object shall be the promotion of historical studies. 

(III). 
Any person approved by the executive council may be- 
come a member by paying $3, and after the first year may 
continue a member by paying an annual fee of $3. On pay- 
ment of $50 any person may become a life member, exempt 
from fees. Persons not resident in the United States may 
be elected as honorary or corresponding members and be 
exempt from the payment of fees. 

(IV). 

The officers shall be a president, two vice-presidents, a 
secretary, a secretary of the council, a curator, a treasurer, 
and an executive council consisting of the foregoing officers 
and six other members elected by the association, with the 
ex-presidents of the association. These officers shall be 
elected by ballot at each regular annual meeting of the as- 
sociation. 

(V). 

The executive council shall have charge of the general 
interests of the association, including the election of mem- 
bers, the calling of meetings, the selection of papers to be 
read, and the determination of what papers shall be pub- 
lished. 

(VI). 

This constitution may be amended at any annual meeting, 
notice of such amendment having been given at the previous 

9 



annual meeting or the proposed amendment having re- 
ceived the approval of the executive council. 

Your committee recommends that the following article be 
substituted for article IV of the present constitution: 

(IV). 

The officers shall be a president, two vice-presidents, a 
secretary, a secretary of the council, a curator, and a treas- 
urer. These officers shall be elected by ballot at each regu- 
lar annual meeting in the manner provided in the by-laws. 

Your Committee recommends that the following article be 
substituted for article V of the present Constitution: 

(V). 
There shall be an executive council constituted as follows : 

(1) The officers named in article IV; 

(2) Elected members, eight in number, to be chosen 
annually in the same manner as the officers of the associa- 
tion; 

(3) The former presidents, but a former president shall 
be entitled to vote for the three years succeeding the expira- 
tion of his term as president, and no longer. 

Your Committee recommends that a new article be adopted, 
numbered VI as follows: 

(VI). 

The executive council shall conduct the business, manage 
the property, and care for the general interests of the as- 
sociation. In the exercise of its proper functions, the council 
may appoint such committees, commissions and boards as 
it may deem necessary. The council shall make a full re- 
port of its activities to the annual meeting of the associa- 
tion. The association may by vote at any annual meeting 
instruct the executive council to discontinue or enter upon 
any activity, and may take such other action in directing 
the affairs of the association as it may deem necessary and 
proper. 

Your Committee recommends that article VI of the existing 
constitution be re-numbered VII. 

10 



Your Committee recommends the adoption of the following 
By-laws : 

(1) The officers provided for by the constitution shall 
have the duties and perform the functions customarily at- 
taching to their respective offices with such others as may 
from time to time be prescribed. 

(2) A nomination committee of five members shall be 
chosen at each annual meeting in the manner hereafter 
provided for the election of officers of the association. At 
such convenient time prior to the 1st of October as it may 
determine it shall invite every member to express to it his 
preference regarding every offiee to be filled by election at 
the ensuing annual meeting and regarding the composition 
of the new nominating committee then to be chosen. It shall 
publish and mail to each member at least twenty days prior 
to the annual meeting such nominations as it may determine 
upon for each elective office and for the next nominating 
committee. It shall prepare for use at the annual meeting 
an official ballot containing, as candidates for each office or 
committee membership to be filled thereat, the names of its 
nominees and also the names of any other nominees which 
may be proposed to the chairman of the committee in writ- 
ing by twenty or more members of the association at least 
five days before the annual meeting. The official ballot shall 
also provide, under each office, a blank space for voting for 
such further nominees as any member may present from 
the floor at the time of the election. 

(3) The annual election of officers and the choice of a 
nominating committee for the ensuing year shall be eon- 
ducted by the use of an official ballot prepared as described 
in by-law two. 

(4) The association authorizes the payment of travelling 

expenses incurred by the voting members of the council 
attending one meeting of that body a year, this meeting to be 
other than that held in connection with the annual meeting 
of the association. 

Respectfully submitted, 
E. D. Adams Charles H. Hull 

R. D. W. Conner W. T. Root 

I. J. Cox James Sullivan 

W. A. Dunning A. C. McLaughlin, 

Max Farrand Chairman, 

n 



Action Taken By The 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

on the Report of the 

COMMITTEE OP NINE 

at the 
Annual Business Meeting, December 29, 1915 



Procedure. 

The Association voted to adopt the procedure recommended by the 
Committee of Nine on pages 3-4 of its report. 

Belationship with the American Historical Review. 

The Association voted to adopt the resolutions recommended by the 
Committee of Nine on page 7 of its report; but amended to read as 
follows : 

(1) Besolved, that it is the opinion of the Association that full 
ownership and control of the American Historical Review should be 
vested in the Association, but that the present connection of the said 
Review with the Carnegie Institution of Washington and with the 
MacmOlan Company, publishers, be continued. 

(2) Besolved, that the President, the First Vice-President, the 
Secretary of the Council, the Secretary of the Association, and the 
Treasurer be instructed to ascertain what arrangements can be made to 
effect that end and report at the next annual meeting of the Asso- 
ciation. 

Amendments to the Constitution. 

The Association voted that in accordance with Article VI of ^e Con- 
stitution notice be and hereby is given that at the next annual meeting of 
the Association [Cincinnati, Ohio, December, 1916] the constitutional amend- 
ments reconunended by the Committee of Nine in its printed report [page 
10] will be laid before the Association for action thereon. 

By-Laws. 

The Association voted that the By-laws recommended by the Committee 
of Niue in its report [page 11] be and hereby are referred to the next 
annual meeting of the Association for action thereon. 

Waldo G. Leland, 

Secretary. 
12 



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